For Now
by Andrea O'Down
Summary: Johnny does not like that he has to wear Meena's pink shirt, which he accidentally shrunk, to the theater. (Sequel to my story "Pink".)


_For the writing-prompts I'm doing on tumblr. An anon asked for "I'm not even sorry." for JohnnyXMeena.  
_

 _I intended these prompts to be stand-alone one-shots, but this fitted so well that I simply had to make a sequel for "Pink". Sorry, not sorry. XD_

* * *

Johnny shifts uneasily in his seat, his fingers grabbing the steering wheel a little too tightly.

He doesn't want to get out of his truck. Not now. Or ever.

Or at least not today.

Not as long as he's wearing this shirt.

This _pink_ shirt.

Yes, it was his fault that Meena's shirt shrunk, but under no circumstances did he see _this_ coming.

That Meena would force him to wear it for one day.

And not even that! On a day when Mike's at the theater. _Mike!_

Maybe he can pretend he got sick on the way here or …

"Johnny?" Meena asks from the passenger seat.

"Yes?" Johnny looks at her until he realizes that if he wants to go with the sick-excuse he _maybe_ should sound and look a bit more miserable.

He clears his throat.

"Sorry," he adds, his voice a little low, and hopefully it comes across as throaty as he wants it to.

Meena raises a brow. "You coming?" she asks.

"Not sure," he says, adding an extra-level of throatiness to his voice. "My voice…"

He breaks off.

Meena raises her brow a little more.

"Yaaaaaahhhhh, not buying it," she says as she climbs out of the truck. "Come on!"

For a moment, Johnny thinks of just starting the engine again and driving off.

But that moment, Meena shoots him such a warning glance that he slightly flinches.

With a sigh, he climbs out of the truck, too.

As they walk up to the theater, Johnny zips up his jacket, so the pink shirt is not visible anymore, but Meena shoots him another warning glance.

Johnny lets out another sigh and unzips his jacket again.

Well, he can still make it to his rehearsal room without running into Mike, if only…

His hopes are shattered when he sets eyes on Mike in the foyer. He seems to be on his way to the rehearsal rooms, too,

The thing is, he's almost reached the stairs already, so maybe he doesn't see them and…

"Hello, Mike!" Meena greets the mouse, and now it's Johnny's turn to shoot her a glance.

She doesn't seem to care.

Mike stops and turns around.

"Oh, hello there, sweetheart!" he greets the teenage elephant.

"Johnny!" he adds with a nod when he turns to Johnny, and then his eyes widen a little. "Is that a pink shirt?" he asks.

Johnny shrugs, doing his best to make it look casual. "So?"

"Since when do you wear pink?"

"Does it matter?"

"It does because really? _You?_ Wearing _pink?_ "

Suddenly, Mike's mouth quivers and then he breaks into laughter.

"Says the mouse wearing a purple suit," Johnny says.

"That's purple!" Mike calls out between laughs. "Not _pink!_ "

"I don't see much of a difference," Johnny adds with a shrug before he flees to his rehearsal room, Mike's laughter following him on his way.

* * *

When the day is finally over, Johnny climbs into his truck as Meena settles down on the passenger seat.

From the corner of his eye, he can see that she's grinning.

"I'm not even sorry," she says.

"Glad you had fun," Johnny says with a shrug. "Mike showed up three times at my rehearsal room to just laugh at me."

And yes, the thought of driving home without Meena and making her walk might have crossed his mind then. He decided against it, though. He doesn't want her to make him wear this shirt again.

This _pink_ shirt.

He shrugs. "At least Ms. Crawly seemed to like it."

Meena laughs. "See? It wasn't all bad."

"Still bad enough for me."

Meena laughs a little more. "Well, you're off the hook now. I'd say we're even."

"Phew!"

It takes Johnny all of his self-control to not take this _pink_ shirt off right then and there, but no, he can't drive home shirtless.

Although…

Nah, bad idea. He doesn't even walk around shirtless in the apartment he and Meena share.

Because they are just roommates.

And he still hasn't figured out the bit where he thinks of them as maybe more than roommates. He doesn't want to. It'll only complicate things.

And his life has just stopped being overly complicated.

"So, you hate me now?" Meena asks, the small smile quirking her mouth giving away that she's not serious.

Johnny looks into her eyes.

"No," he says. "I love you."

It takes him a moment too long to realize that his voice sounded way too serious, that he looked into her eyes way too deeply.

The smile disappears from Meena's face and she frowns.

"Y-you love me?" she asks.

Johnny wants to slap himself. He turns away so he doesn't have to look at her, grabbing the steering wheel with his hands and holding on to it so tightly as if his life depends on it.

He sighs.

"Look, Meena," he begins. "I… I haven't it all figured out yet. I don't know for sure. Maybe I love you more than just a friend, maybe I don't. I'm not sure. My life is just starting to turn into something as close to a normal life as it's ever been for me with my past in the gang and all. I guess I just need a little more time to wrap my head around it. Or-or a lot more time. I really don't know. I'm sorry."

He turns his head a little and looks up at her.

She still looks a bit confused.

He waits for a reply, but she keeps staring at him.

"Meena?" he asks carefully.

She jumps a little.

"N-no, it's fine," she says quickly. "Take all the time you need, Johnny."

He doesn't miss the fact that she turns away.

"Meena, I'm sorry, okay? I shouldn't have said that. I'm so stupid!"

"No, you're not," Meena says and she turns her head to face it. "You just said what was on your mind. That's fine."

She smiles at him, it's just a little smile, but it makes Johnny feel better. He even manages to return it.

"In the meantime," he says, "until I have it all figured out, can we pretend I didn't say anything? I don't want things to be weird between us."

That might be a pious hope, but it's worth a try at least.

"Okay," Meena replies, her voice just little more than a whisper.

Johnny doesn't know why, but he feels the urge to hug her.

He fights it down.

Instead he takes his right hand from the steering wheel, only barely realizing the prickling feeling as the blood starts to flow back into his fingers again.

He holds his hand out to Meena.

"Friends?" he asks.

Suddenly, the smile is back on Meena's face and it somehow relieves Johnny.

She takes his hand and shakes it.

"Friends," she replies.

Johnny returns her smile before he starts the engine.

He's relieved, too.

For now, he's fine with them being just friends.

For now, he's fine with just having Meena around.

For now, he's fine with having more time to figure it all out.

His true feelings, his life, well, _everything_.

For now.

He can think about the rest later.


End file.
